A Turkic people. Until the 16th century, a large independent Tartar state existed in western Asia that at one time reached into Europe as far as Romania. Some historians think that the Tartars had Gypsy slaves and brought them to Romania around the 13th century, where both they and some of their captors - after the defeat of the Tartars-became slaves of the Romanians.

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TARTARS — (originally TATARS), a name of no precise ethnological signification, used in the 13th century to describe the Mongolic, Turkish, and other Asiatic hordes, who, under GENGHIS KHAN (q.v.), were the terror of Eastern Europe, and now bestowed… … The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

Lament for the Destruction of Hungary by the Tartars — (Lat. Planctus destructionis regni Hungariae per Tartaros ) is a prominent piece of medieval Hungarian poetry. It was written in 1242, shortly after the invasion of Hungary by the Tartars of Batu Khan, by a monk in the retinue of King Béla IV.In… … Wikipedia